A number of drum pedal devices are known which trigger and control the production of musical sounds by percussion instruments. They allow a musician to be more versatile by freeing his hands to play other musical instruments. One such device is known as an acoustic drum pedal which is typically used to operate an acoustic bass drum. It includes a pedal that actuates a beater, causing it to strike the membrane of the bass drum. By way of example, forms of such devices are described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,797,356 to Duffy, et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 3,967,523 to Currier, et al. Improvements on devices of this nature are described in my previous patent, U.S. Pat. No. 4,538,499.
These known devices do, however, have disadvantanges. They are generally usable only with conventional acoustic percussion instruments and, therefore, only trigger and control the product of sounds by the instruments, i.e., acoustic sounds rather than synthesized sounds. On the other hand, electronic percussion instruments, such as drum synthesizers and electronic drums, which convert acoustic sounds or vibrations into synthesized percussive sounds, have proliferated the field of music. Many musical compositions are now characterized by synthesized percussive sounds.
Since a number of these electronic percussion instruments contemplate the use of pedal devices to trigger and control the production of synthesized percussive sounds, there has arisen a need for a pedal device which can achieve these results without sacrificing certain advantages associated with common acoustic drum pedals used on acoustic drums. One approach toward meeting this need has been to modify the common acoustic drum pedal such that it also includes a sounding block mounted on a vibration pickup. When the beater strikes the block, the pickup generates an electrical signal which is transferred to a synthesizer, thereby producing synthesized percussive sounds. By way of the example, one form of such device is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,200,025 to Currier, et al.
Another approach has been to use the common drum pedal, clamped to the common electronic drum pad. The drum pad generally comprises a flat, hard surface, such as wood or plastic, which can be rubber or plastic coated, that is mounted on a vibration pickup. The hard surface approach can be an effective way of transmitting reasonably dynamically sensitive signals to the synthesizer.
These types of devices, however, have a number of drawbacks. They tend, for instance, to impair the playing style of the musician and cause a musician's ailment commonly known as "drum pad knee." These difficulties at least partially stem from the fact that when the rather hard head of the beater strikes the rather hard surface of the pad very little elastic deformation results at the point of impact. As a result, it tends to lack the overall "natural feel" which is characteristic of high quality acoustic drum pedals used on acoustic drums.
Another approach has involved the placement of pickup devices, such as electrical transducers, on the drum head of a drum. When the membrane of the drum is struck, these devices convert the acoustic vibrations of the membrane into electronic signals that may be electronically processed to generate percussion sounds. A variation of such pickup devices can also include a mechanism for filtering out extraneous vibrations. By way of example, forms of such devices are described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,659,032 to May and U.S. Pat. No. 4,226,156 to Hyakutake.
This approach, too, has a number of disadvantages. It often only permits amplification, rather than synthesization, of an electrical signal, and provides a signal that includes extraneous vibrations. The devices also tend to fail to sense and convert the acoustic vibrations accurately enough. As a result, the playing style of the musician is impaired and the quality of percussion sounds is adversely affected.
Accordingly, there is a need for a drum pedal device which has adequately adjustable playing positions, which is capable of accurately triggering and controlling the production of synthesized percussive sounds by synthesizers without at the same time tending to produce "drum pad knee" or impair the musician's playing style, and which emulates the "bouncing and rocking" motion and overall "natural feel" of a high quality acoustic drum pedal used on an acoustic drum.